The rumor mill is that Freddy Adu has been booted by Beleneses and sent back to Benifica. Adu has seen almost no playing time at either club, and this recent change should have him thinking about a possible move to MLS or a lower level European league where he can secure more playing time. Adu showed great promise when he payed with DC United, and I think move bacl to MLS would suit him well, since playing here is better then languishing on the bench in Portugal. Adu could even make his case to Bradley to take him South Africa if he secures playing time at another European league.

The Enemy Part One: Slovenia

Im going to start looking in depth at the competition the USA will face in the group stage come summer. First up Slovenia. This team has been surprising people since its inception in 1992, qualifying for Euros in 2000 by beating Ukraine, managing an unbeaten qualification run for the 2002 world cup, and more recently beating out mighty Russia to qualify for South Africa. The Slovaks also recorded a memorable 1-o victory over Italy in the run up to Germany 2006, a competition Italy would go on to win.
Its easy to write off Eastern European countries, but when you take a closer look at Slovenia you realize that they possess quite a few quality players, most of which have signficant experiance with the national team. Up front Slovenia draws on the goalscoring powers of Milivoje Novakvic, FC Colonge's leading scorer of the 08-09 season, Valter Bisra, striker for Ligue 1 side Auxerre, and Zlatko Dedic, who plays of Bundesliga side FC Bochum. In many ways the Slovenian team and the USA team are similar, at least in terms of mentality. Both teams have been responsible for upsets in the past, and both teams seem to be playing for respect. Their is a real collective spirit about the Slovenians, whose thrilling win over Russia was partially the result of constant chances created by the defense on the counter attack. The US would do well to dominate the midfield, which is by far the teams weakest point. The Slovenian midfield generally lacks quality, with few players based in top European leagues, with the exception of inexperienced (and rarley capped) midfielder Rene Krhin of Inter Milan. If the likes of Dempsy, Clark, Holden (Beasley?), can smoother the middle, the USA should have no problem limiting Slovenia's chances.

Jones Drama

Newly minted USA international Jermaine Jones was reportedly involved in a bust up with Shalke manager Felix Magath. The midfielder was supposedly unhappy about his rehab plan after breaking his leg some time ago, leading to a confrontation and a threat by Jones to leave Shalke. While the prospect of Jones leaving Shalke is a little tempting (Everton??) the truth is that if he wants to appear in South Africa hes going to need to not only secure playing time but mend a potential rift between him and his manager. Much of what is coming out of the club is speculation at this point, but the fact remains that what could be the USA's potential star remains out of the loop and now out of favor at his club.

Well Mark Hughes is gone, and maybe now I can stop ranting about how much of a dissapointment City is. Have to say though that I did feel pretty bad for the man, hes a good manager, I guess hes just not as good as the money would suggest. What do you know the first thing Mancini vowed to work on was defense.

Leaked USA jersey?

This may be old news but photos surfaced a while back of the supposed world cup jersey for the USMNT. Although they've been getting a lot of flack online, I personally like the new design which is suggestive of the kit the 1950 world cup side wore when they beat England (how fitting for 2010).

Most Soul in England

National Team Report.

There have been several developments surrounding the US national team players in recent months. Most notably is Landon Donoven's rumored transfer to Everton, although LA is keeping all options on the table. Here is a round up of the happanings around the US soccer scence.

Landon Donovan is expected to go on loan for three months to English side Everton. The MLS MVP could expect decent amounts of playing time considering the Blue's injury riddled front. With leading scorer Louis Saha linked to a move away from the club in January Everton could potentially sign the midfielder on a long term deal if he performs well during his loan spell. This isn't the first time Donovan has gone overseas, his stints at Bayern and Bayer were both unsuccessful, but its worth nothing that both those clubs possessed such front talent as Luca Toni and Franck Ribery. LA has yet to finalize anything, and have even hinted that several European clubs are chasing Donovan, however Everton is the only club to confirm talks with the USA international.

Jermaine Jones re-injured himself in training with Schalke 04. The newly minted US midfielder has barely played this season, and is starting to have his world cup credentials cast into doubt. Jones was potentially the USA's biggest European caliber star, a reliable performer and one of the Bundesliga's top scorers in the 08- 09 season. Jone's leg injury puts him out till January at the earliest.

Charlie Davis is making an above average recovery, and has stated that he fully plans to play in South Africa, weather Bob Bradley agrees is yet to be seen.

Marcus Hahnemann has been handed the starting goalkeeper position for English side Wolves, and has been in good form lately. His promotion means hes probably going to South Africa, but I doubt hes going to challenge Tim Howard for his spot.

Michael Bradly continues to make sporadic appearances for Bourussia, and scored his first goal of the season today against Hannover 96.

Mexico based players Jose Fransisco Torres, Edgar Castillo, and Michael Orozco continue to claw their way into the first team of their respective clubs. Some of these players will no doubt receive a look from Bradley before the Summer.

Stuart Holden and Ricardo Clark will both be looking for European signings come January, with both players looking to Scotland for a way out of MLS. Holden already possesses Scottish citizenship, which should make his transfer significantly easier. Moves for both players would need to be made carfully. Neither Clark nor Holden are good enough to negotiate deals with top clubs, and the last thing the US needs is more Freddy Adus.

Galaxy to Everton: Easy there

You ain't the only ones who want him.

Well about that

My last post looks a little silly now, and I'll admit City made me eat my words today. With the first own goal off Adebayor it looked like defensive fumbling was going to defeat the Citizens again today, but it seems that all City needed was a sufficient fire under their asses, and Chelsea provided that flame. For there part Chelsea was living off scraps of possession. The midfield was severely outclassed, barley holding the little possession they had, and I'm starting to question the continued reliance on Ballack. Weather or not this singles the awakening of a sleeping giant remains to be seen, but all in all a deserved win for the Sky Blues.

Shity City

Manchester City fans are busy rejoicing their 3 nil victory over Arsenal in Carling Cup play today, but what the rest of the soccer world know is that Manchester City is one of the biggest disappointments of this year. Our readership certainly already knows about City's girth of big name summer signings, and with names like Lescott and Tevez you would think the Real Madrid of England would at least have secured itself a top four spot. Why has this club with so much power recently set a record for the most consecutive draws? It's quite simple, Manchester city is a fantastic example of how a team failed to form a cohesive unit despite the immense individual talent. The thing which sets Manchester city apart from other teams which lack cohesiveness, such as Argentina and to a lesser degree Real Madrid, is that the front of the team seems to understand the concept of team work while the back seems to be totally ignorant of it. Up front, Craig Bellemy and Emmanual Adebayor are both performing up to par, with five goals a piece, while Tevez, Wright Phillips, and Petrov have all gotten on the score sheet this season. On the whole the Citizen's front behaves much like a offense of its caliber should, and City have shown that they can easily score 3 goals in a match. Unfortunately City's defense allows as many goals as the offense scores. Most notable is the failure of communication between City's defenders, who often leave men unmarked, shift at unreasonable times, and generally allow runs into the box too often. Kolo Toure and Joleon Lescott gave the perfect example of this when their lax defending allowed Burnley 3 second half goals in their draw away to City. Replays of Burnley's second goal show Lescott cooley walking through the box while behind him Steven Fletcher makes a run towards the net, resulting in a second goal. Lescott and Toure are not bad players, each of them proved themselves at Everton and Arsenal respectively before their move to Manchester. Hughes is going to need to realize that just because he hired top players, doesnt mean their styles are suited to one another. And while he seems to have struck a winning formula up front, he would be wise to chase a big name defensive signing this winter, one who can add some much needed cohesiveness to a messy defense.